Some of those released were jailed in 2017 after being arrested in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, a report suggests the next US aid package will include air defense missiles. DW has the latest.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the Vatican for its help in freeing 10 Ukrainians from prison in Russia and Belarus.
The freed included Nariman Dzhelyal, a leader of the Crimean Tatars, and two priests.
Five of those held by Russia were originally arrested in Belarus, Russia’s close ally, including on charges of providing intelligence about Russian military movements to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, the United States is to provide Ukraine with $150 million worth of weapons and ammunition, including HAWK air defense interceptors and 155-millimeter artillery munitions, Reuters news agency cited two US officials as saying. The package is due to be unveiled on Monday, they said.
Also, a researcher has told the United Nations Security Council that fragments of weapons removed from the battlefield have “irrefutably” come from North Korea, which has been accused of supplying arms to Russia.
Here are the latest developments from Russia’s war in Ukraine on Saturday, June 29.
Skip next section Russia says it captured village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region
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Russia says it captured village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region
Russian forces have taken control of Rozdolivka, a settlement in eastern Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
The ministry said its forces had taken up more favorable positions after pushing Ukrainian troops out of the settlement.
Kyiv has disputed the claim, saying fighting in areas around the settlement was still raging.
“Our soldiers resolutely held their defenses and repelled 15 of the [19] assaults,” a report by the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said, referring to Russian attacks on a broad area that included Rozdolivka. “Four armed confrontations are continuing.”
Rozdolivka is located in the Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia’s slow advance across eastern Ukraine.
It lies north of Bakhmut and Soledar, two areas brought under Russian control last year after being flattened in months of battles.
Russian forces have captured several villages in eastern regions since they captured the strategic town of Avdiivka in February.
Russia says it captured village in Ukraine’s Donetsk region
Russian forces have taken control of Rozdolivka, a settlement in eastern Ukraine, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
The ministry said its forces had taken up more favorable positions after pushing Ukrainian troops out of the settlement.
Kyiv has disputed the claim, saying fighting in areas around the settlement was still raging.
“Our soldiers resolutely held their defenses and repelled 15 of the [19] assaults,” a report by the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said, referring to Russian attacks on a broad area that included Rozdolivka. “Four armed confrontations are continuing.”
Rozdolivka is located in the Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia’s slow advance across eastern Ukraine.
It lies north of Bakhmut and Soledar, two areas brought under Russian control last year after being flattened in months of battles.
Russian forces have captured several villages in eastern regions since they captured the strategic town of Avdiivka in February.
Moscow: 5 killed in Ukrainian drone strike on Russian border village
Five people were killed in a drone attack in the Russian region of Kursk, near the border with Ukraine, according to local Russian authorities.
Two small children were among the dead. Alexei Smirnov, governor of the Kursk region, said.
According to Smirnov, a residential building in the village of Gorodishche was struck.
Two seriously injured people were taken to hospital.
Russia’s Kursk region, along with Bryansk, Belgorod and Rostov, are close to the border with Ukraine and have been targeted by repeated strikes by Kyiv’s forces.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday that six attacking drones had been shot down overnight in a total of four Russian regions.
Next US aid package to Ukraine includes air defense missiles — report
The Biden administration will provide Ukraine with $150 million (€140 million) worth of weapons and ammunition, including HAWK air defense interceptors and 155-millimeter artillery munitions, Reuters news agency reported, citing two US officials.
The White House is due to announce the package on Monday, the officials said, following repeated requests by Kyiv for air defense support.
Ukraine’s military has said it needs the technology to prevent aerial attacks by Russia on its energy facilities.
The US began shipping HAWK interceptor missiles to Ukraine in 2022 — an upgrade to the shorter-range shoulder-launched Stinger air defense systems.
The new package will include other munitions and equipment to support Ukraine’s defense needs, the sources added.
The military aid comes from a mechanism that allows the US president to quickly transfer defense goods and services from domestic stocks to support allies.
Several Ukrainians freed from Russian detention, aided by Vatican
Ten Ukrainians, including a politician and two priests, who were held captive by Russia and Belarus have returned home, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
He thanked the Vatican for its mediation in the release of the civilians.
Some of those released have been in prison since 2017, Zelenskyy said, arrested in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine that at the time were run by Moscow-backed separatists.
One of the freed captives was Nariman Dzhelyal, a leader of the Crimean Tatars, who was taken a year before Moscow’s forces invaded. He was detained from where he lived in Crimea, despite the peninsula being illegally annexed by Russia a few years earlier.
Five of those liberated had been held in ex-Soviet Belarus, Moscow’s closest ally, which allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to help launch the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners throughout the nearly two-and-a-half-year conflict, typically in one-for-one swaps. But the release of civilian prisoners is rarer.
Some 3,310 Ukrainians have already been released from Russian captivity, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. But many thousands, both civilians and military personnel, remain imprisoned.
Source: DW news
